This grant promotes the development of promising MD and PhD postdoctoral fellows as independent investigators and future university faculty members who will investigate the pathogenesis of Gl and hepatic diseases and perform translational reasearch to develop novel diagnostic and treatment approaches to these disorders. Our T32 program has been funded for 10 years and has supported 25 fellows. 20 are in academic positions or remain in training. We propose adding 2 predoctoral positions for basic science graduate students who are committed to Gl or hepatic investigation. Training of postdoctoral fellows or students is individualized, with the most important component being original research conducted in the faculty mentor's laboratory, supplemented by didactic courses, seminars and conferences, and seminars on responsible conduct of research. The multidisciplinary training faculty consists of 21 closely interacting funded investigators from 10 basic science and clinical departments at UNC and North Carolina State University, School of Veterinary Med., who are all full-time members of the NIDDK-funded Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease (CGIBD). Co-mentoring by basic science and clinical faculty encourages a broad training experience that emphasizes clinically relevant investigations. The trainees benefit from the unique strengths of digestive disease research at UNC, which include the CGIBD with its research cores, a research-oriented Pediatric Gastroenterology Division, a coordinated multidisciplinary research training program, animal models of digestive diseases, gnotobiotic rodent facilities, outstanding programs in Gl epidemiology and biostatistics, a Gene Therapy Center, a Center for Alcohol Studies and an institutional commitment to functional imaging. The training program is directed by Drs. Balfour Sartor and James Anderson with active involvement by the Training Program Advisory Committee. The program recruits two new fellows each year for a total of four fellows from a pool of MD adult or pediatric Gl fellows and PhD postdoctoral fellows. Graduate students will be eligible for training support after entering their 3rd year of study, after they have entered a mentor's laboratory. The trainees receive at least two years of intensive training in molecular techniques and basic pathophysiology in a diverse but integrated investigative environment that yields broadly trained independent investigators capable of adapting to rapid advances in